Storytelling Science

Tell stories, learn science! See these other Storytelling Science columns from the Hindustan Times (2005-07)

Why Women are Better at Science

Amitabha Mukerjee

Many of us look on "science" as something faraway, living in dense
forbidding books -- tricky "exam problems" that have to be
"solved" by memorizing "techniques".

Yet here is a science experiment: Chop an onion.
Fry it until the oil starts to
separate. Add some mustard seeds. Stir until you get a
light fragrance. Add a few green chillies . Add a good bit of whole spinach leaf, some
salt, and cook on low heat for a few minutes until the leaves start to wilt. Serve
immediately on rice. Yum!!

"Hello?" You are
saying. This is not science, this is
a recipe! Yes -- but it is also a complete science
experiment. The point at which oil
"separates", the way the mustard yields a fragrance, how salt releases
water in the spinach, are all results of this experiment, which every housewife
understands. Her understanding is intuitive
but she is just as right as any scientist, because it works for her!

Did you know that our great-great-great.. grandmothers never
used green chilly? First it was planted
in Sri Lanka, which is why the word for it in some
languages is "Lanka".

Personal Science

Increasingly, the view of modern science is more
individual. We must each have our own science. What is called science changes with time, and
what is science today may be superstition tomorrow. Science is not an objective reality outside us,
but a construct of social forces creating a certain point of view. In a very important
sense, your own story of how the world behaves, is yourscience. It is your identity. And by banishing this to the books, our children
are banishing their self-esteem, their confidence. The battle of Storytelling
Science is not just about science, but about our souls.

Yes, science is about stories. There are many stories behind this
recipe. Cutting the onions creates thousands
of microscopic explosions, releasing a sulphur compound. When this chemical reaches the eye, it mixes with
the moisture on there, making sulphuric acid. Now, acid is dangerous for our eyes, so the
eye glands react by producing lots of water (tears) that washes away this
acid!

When the same onion is fried, the cellulose in
the cells break down into sucrose (sugar), making it sweeter and
tastier. The slower you cook it, the more sucrose and
any cook worth his salt knows that cooking slower captures more flavour . Hard to believe, but there is a Bengali dish
called "peyaajer paayesh "
which is a dessert made with onions! And
once the cellulose in the cell walls break up, the oil also escapes, and the
onions are done!

How you can matter

In our storytelling science sessions, we go to schools and have children
tell their stories by making their own storytelling
toys. Fascinatingly, girls are often better at this kind of science -
especially in villages. I think this may happen because they
are more willing to think independently, avoiding bookish
cliche's.

Girls are more confident in
their personal science, their worldview - maybe because of their personal
experiments in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the boys are led astray by all
those fat books. Personally, I think this
is why so some mothers (ahem!) may be more practical than their
husbands!

In this vast country, millions of school children
are losing their childhood in the myth of a faraway science. This column is for
you, the adults, so you can awaken a favourite child into
science by sharing stories like this. But you can't just tell it
you have to live it by inviting her to actually make this
recipe!